How to create a HackerRank Contest?

R.Prabhakara Arjun — Thu, 05 Jun 2025 15:45:51 +0000

Hello everyone this is R.Prabhakara Arjun,🕺
I faced a hard time creating a HackerRank contest without proper guidance and clear documentation.
If you’re a fellow tech enthusiast facing the same challenge, you’re not alone! To help others avoid the confusion I went through, I’ve documented my full experience and provided a step-by-step guide to setting up a contest.
The complete markdown is there in my git: HACKER-RANK-CONTESTS

I hope this helps all the aspiring contest creators out there. Happy coding!

HACKERRANK-CONTESTS🚀

ABOUT 📘

The below documentation will guide you how to create a coding contest
what's given the below is a part of DSL(Domain Specific Language) which is like a pesudo code that will create code blocks of your defenition.
- DSL helps you create code stubs like main function and solution function
- You can decide the input types and parameters.

STEPS TO CREATE A CONTEST 🛠️

STEP-1: Siginin and login into hackerrank got to Dashboard
STEP-2: Click the top right corner which contains the logo,you will get to see the profile->dark mode->leaderboard->settings->bookmarks->network_>submission_>administration->logout
- Choose the administration
STEP-3: Click create contest button and exploration is up to you.

TIPS 💡

Moderators are the one who is like admin in whatsapp group,they have acess to your contest and they can manage them
- If you are going to make an official contest with large number of people do it as a team,do it with moderators.
Challenges are the place where you create your own question or (in-built)make use of already made question form hacerrank.

STEPS TO CREATE A CHALLENGE 🧪

You will come across the word challenges these are custom made problems.
- You can build your own question
Go to administration page click here
Choose Manage chalanges
STEP-1: Click Create challenge
STEP-2: You can always change this create page later. so make it as a simple dummy page(fill rubbish),just give a proper Challenge Name as of now and minimal description u can change it later.
STEP-3: In details you can change the entire description,you can modify problem statement,etc.
- Note everything is a MarkDown so you can style it,it is saved as .md
- You can preview the content
STEP-4: here comes the fun part
- Go to Code stubs,this is the place where you will create stub which will generate template code in all languages you have selelcted in Langugaes
- Paste the below code and click Generate Code stubs then you are ready to go.

EXAMPLE1 ✏️


function(boolean,isPower,integer n)
integer(n)
invoke(boolean,result,isPower,n)
print(boolean,result)

EXAMPLE2 ✏️


function(2d_integer_array, findMe2, integer l, integer m, integer n, integer target, integer_array arr)
integer(l) integer(m) integer(n) integer(target)
Array(integer, arr, l, single)
invoke(2d_integer_array, result, findMe2, l, m, n, target, arr)
print(2d_integer_array, result)

How it works? ⚙️

function creates a function with syntax given below
inputs are given in the next few lines with synatx given below
invoke calls it
print makes the user get to see the output.

TEST CASES 🧪

NOTE: The input is given in the format how you gdefined the code in your stubs(DSL)
output is just the answer for the input what you gave.
You can give it as sample and explain it. This is visible once you click the pencil option
Also You can change strength for each test case.
To create a large number of test cases you can write a custom script that will define files as


testcases.zip
├── input00.txt
├── output00.txt
├── input01.txt
├── output01.txt
└── ...

You can code solution for you code and create a script(py code,java code) to create a new file under a empty folder with proper matching name.
- Then you can zip it
- Upload it

TIPS 💡

How Do I Upload All Test Cases at Once?
For creating arrays input give spacing properly.
For boolean output give 1 or 0.

DSL 🧠

Welcome to HackerRank DSL (Domain Specific Language) Documentation! You can use our the DSL to generate code stubs that read test case data from standard input in hackerrank challenges.

Datatypes Supported
Reading Variables
Writing Loops
Reading 1-D Array
Reading 2-D Array
Putting Comments
Generating Functions
Invoke a Function
Print a Variable
DSL In Action
Bug Report or Need help?

Datatypes Supported

Integer: integer
Float: float
String: string
Boolean: boolean
Long Integer: long_integer
Character: character

Reading variables

Syntax	Example
`Datatype(variable_name)`	integer(a)
At most 4 variables per line is supported	integer(n) integer(k)

Writing Loops

You can use loops to read multiple test cases.

Syntax	Example
`loop(variable_name)` `{code}` `endloop`	loop(t) integer(n) endloop

Reading 1-D Array

Syntax	Example
`Array(Datatype,name,size,single)`	Array(integer,a,n,single)
`Array(Datatype,name,size,multi)`	Array(float,b,m,multi)

Note: Type is single if the array elements are on the same line. Otherwise, it should be multi.
Warning: Don't leave any extra space.

Reading 2-D Array

Syntax	Example
`2DArray(Datatype,name,size1,size2)`	2DArray(integer,a,n,m)

Putting Comments

Syntax
`#Your own comment`

A special comment is #StartCode, this will generate the text "your code goes here" as a comment.

Generating Functions

Syntax	Example
`Function(return_type, function_name, param_type1 name1, param_type2 name2, …)`	function(integer_array, solve, integer x, integer_array board)

Return type/Param type supported:
- integer
- long_integer
- string
- integer_array/long_integer_array/string_array
- 2d_integer_array/2d_long_integer_array/2d_string_array (param only)
- void (return type only)

Invoke a Function

Syntax	Example
`INVOKE(return_type, variable_name,function_name, param1, param2…)`	INVOKE(integer_array, result, solve, n, board[n])

If the invoked function is void, return_type and variable_name should be “void”.
If the param is a 1-d array, format is param[size]

Print a variable

Syntax	Example
`PRINT(data_type, variable_name)`	PRINT(integer, result)
`PRINT(data_type, separator)`	PRINT(integer_array, result, +) PRINT(integer_array, result, NEWLINE) PRINT(integer_array, result, COMMA)

The third parameter is optional. The default separator is space. The separator can be NEWLINE, SPACE, COMMA or any character.
Data_type supported are single integer/long_integer/string and 1-d integer/string/long_integer array.

DSL In Action

Challege	DSL
https://www.hackerrank.com/challenges/mark-and-toys	`integer(n) integer(k)` `Array(integer,a,n,single)`
https://www.hackerrank.com/challenges/two-arrays	`integer(t)` `loop(t)` `integer(n) integer(k)` `Array(integer,a,n,single)` `endloop`
https://www.hackerrank.com/challenges/breaking-best-and-worst-records	`FUNCTION(INTEGER_ARRAY, getRecord, INTEGER_ARRAY s)` `Integer(n)` `Array(integer,s,n,single)` `INVOKE(INTEGER_ARRAY, result, getRecord, s[n])` `PRINT(INTEGER_ARRAY, result)`
https://www.hackerrank.com/challenges/cavity-map	`integer(n)` `2DArray(character,grid,n,n+1)`

DEV Community: R.Prabhakara Arjun

How to create a HackerRank Contest?

HACKERRANK-CONTESTS🚀

ABOUT 📘

STEPS TO CREATE A CONTEST 🛠️

TIPS 💡

STEPS TO CREATE A CHALLENGE 🧪

EXAMPLE1 ✏️

EXAMPLE2 ✏️

How it works? ⚙️

TEST CASES 🧪

TIPS 💡

DSL 🧠

Datatypes Supported

Reading variables

Writing Loops

Reading 1-D Array

Reading 2-D Array

Putting Comments

Generating Functions

Invoke a Function

Print a variable

DSL In Action